Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Earlier this summer, each time Ken and I planned to have a cookout, the weather refused to cooperate and we were forced to cook and eat indoors. But August has turned into a fantastic summer month this year and we've been able to use the grill.

The concrete backyard BBQ grill.

We used to barbecue a lot back in California. I started out with the standard charcoal grill, but moved on to gas grills pretty quickly. The window of opportunity for grilling where we lived in San Francisco was small; no time could be wasted waiting for coals.

Here in France, grilling is also very popular. Many people have gas grills, and some, like our neighbor, have electric grills (which are great for doing up sausages). There is, of course, the standard charcoal grill. I have two: a Weber Smokey Joe that we moved from California, and a backyard bbq that we bought at a local hardware store.

My only problem has been with the charcoal. In France, you cannot find the typical American charcoal briquettes (is that a French word?). What they sell is bags of charbon de bois (wood charcoal). It's actual pieces of wood that have been burned into charcoal. The theory is that you light it and it quickly becomes a bed of hot coals, much in the same way that briquettes do.

The wood fire is almost ready.

I say theory because, while the charbon de bois gets hot fast, it also cools down very quickly, and I've not mastered the art of cooking on the stuff. Especially because I like to cook things like pork and chicken on the grill. They require low and slow cooking, and my coals end up either too hot or too cool to do the job properly.

After a few years of frustrating grilling experiences, I discovered what might have been obvious to someone more quick on the uptake than I: wood fires. In the big concrete bbq, all I have to do is build a small wood fire. When it burns down, I end up with a bed of hot coals that last through the cooking process.

The added bonus is that we live in wine country. That means there's an almost unlimited supply of old grape vine trunks to burn. All the people we know tell us that grape trunks make the best barbecues. The wood burns hot and makes great long-lasting coals, and the flavor of the smoke is greatly appreciated.

Callie brings home BBQ fuel.

And we're even luckier in that we have a dog who loves to bring old vine trunks home after her vineyard walks. She made a nice pile of the stuff for us last winter, and we're looking forward to another haul as the pruning season gets under way later this year. It's great to have a working dog!

So I'm a convert. The wood fires are easy to build, and they don't take much longer than traditional briquettes to be ready for cooking. Now, is that meat marinated yet?

While starting reading I was going to suggest putting wood in lieu of "charbon" and then I saw that you have discovered the solution at the end of your billet. That's the way we used to cook when I was growing up when it was too hot on the island. Start a fire with wood in a corner of the courtyard, and then you can "slow cook" what ever meat you want or even some exotic rice-based meals mixed with beef or lamb.

I hope that Callie gets to partake some of the BBQ after working hard to bring in the wood :-)

My sister uses wood too with her BBQ. Whole sardines are really delicious and depending on the kind of wood they use, it makes a difference. To get off subject, I saw that you have a visitor from Mongolia. Do they have a blog?

The only way to slow down a lump charcoal fire to get a long slow cook is to starve it of oxygen. So with your open grill as pictured, you're SOL. Google "german grill" for another take on charcoal grilling. You can grill almost anything with charcoal if you have the right equipment and by using different types of smouldering wood chips (soaked in water beforehand) you can tailor different types of smoke to different foods. It's a lot of fun.

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About the Author

Living outside of Saint-Aignan-sur-Cher since 2003. You'll find here pictures and descriptions of our daily life in rural France, some travels, and other stuff about me, my husband Ken, our dog Tasha, and our cat Bertie.

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